What we need is a robot to go around killing slaughterhouse (oops, I mean military) “scientists” like Dr. Arquilla!

Well, fellas, I agree with you, but you gotta read the reference site about the latest on AI and the people working on it, to get the full brunt of what I meant by “empathy.” I’m not the only one concerned about it—now and forever.

Empathy?! Are you kidding me! Empathy!? What’s the difference between someone holding a gun a hundred feet away or a joystick 100 miles away—or a thousand for that matter.

This is all shit: mankind has been killing each other since recorded history—and, obviously, long before. This is just a new weapon, nothing more. It’s the chariot or catapult of the times.

So it’s not a matter of ai’s empathic ability (which is zero), it is, and always has been, a matter of human empathic ability (close to zero).

The real question is: how do we increase empathy in those human beings most responsible for creating and sustaining wars? 

Someone should invent an empathy pill. Oh wait, they already did—too bad it’s illegal.

Gerard, regarding your concern about AI and empathy—-

Rest assured that at least those feared ‘hard takeoff’ AI systems CAN’T have any less empathy than these **cking Wall Street sociopathic looting pricks that have screwed us all.

As Bill Murray might say, “at least we got that going for us”

Best,
Alan

Fat Freddy:  It’s hard to say “thank you” for that citation.  But Thank you anyway.  I browsed around further on several other sites and have to report back that this “Artifician Intelligence”  is definitely not science fiction.  It’s just ahead down the road, and even the guys working with it have no idea what will happen.  Some predict doom; others equivocate.
  My question for a long time has been related to the urgency of trying to understand “empathy” before it is too late. Obviously it is already the 11th hour for humanity.
  Empathy is a quality that is necessary before you can say people are fully “human” if you imply fairness, enlightenment, vision, mental health, generosity etc.
  Yet it’s pretty much an unknown quality.  Why do some people “have” it and others not?  How do you “get” it.  What encourages it? What impedes its development? Can it be “taught”? Or is it inborn? 
  After reading the progress in AI that is just around the corner, I feel the researchers should bring their work to a grinding halt until they investigate and discover the principles embodied in that concept—empathy.

This is not about fighting wars, it’s about controlling the masses.

Enough said.

Here’s a blog post from a friend from High School who is an AGI (Artificial General Intelligence, or Strong AI) researcher. Very interesting, indeed.

http://multiverseaccordingtoben.blogspot.com/2010_10_29_archive.html

Hi Mr. Reeves,

Good to read you here on the the ‘Dig. 

Not to quibble too much but your article doesn’t mention a couple of creepier points.

To wit:  There is research going on for weapons that, far from killing afar, will kill close, very, very close.

Google:

Chembots

Imagine a weapon that can ooze through your ventilation ducts, reconstitute itself and blow you away.  How’s that for creepy and close-up killing?

Creepier still is the fact that a public website is advertising the need for research for such weapons. Why is it creepy? Not all of the unfriendlies (your term, I prefer whackos) who want to blow us up will use cars and suitcases.

They have scientists and research facilities of their own and they can can always steal or otherwise appropriate what we invent, as has always happened in the past when new weapons are developed. 

Once such weapons proliferate, no one—no one, anywhere—will be safe. That’s bad news for everyone.  Fear of mutually assured destruction has kept the ICBMs in their silos. Once every ruler knows he or she can be killed personally—up close and personal in fact—there will be a rush to see who can kill who first.  This is not good.  Computers are logical. Humans who control them—not so much.

One other quibble.  I was very offended by the following:  “And some of us think you, Dr. Arquilla, are a nutcase….”  Nutcase is an absurdly mild term that in no way clearly expresses your obvious meaning and sentiments.  Fucking lunatic —now that pretty much hits the nail on the head. 

Other than those minor quibbles, I agree with every word in your article. 

Welcome.

Keep coming back.

What do you say to lunacy like this? Endless thought and $$$$$$ invested in doomsday technology while the World trembles on the brink.

    The unstated obvious is the fact that if murderous robotics (drones) are controlled from the U.S. the U.S. control centers become the logical target.

    So, another signpost on the road to needless insane oblivion is well behind us.

    Are these people from this planet?

This column is making me feel real old.

Am I the only one old enough to remember the actual dialog and message of Dr. Strangelove——remember it even if I didn’t own the original video and watch it over 50 times?  “Major Batguano, Do you think I would go into (intellectual) combat without a VHS in my pocket?”

Dr. Arquilla, Richard Reeves, and many here may be as “wicked smat” as Will Hunting, but they don’t seem to know shit about the message of Strangelove, that automated/robotic/cybernetic controls for war predictably have an unpredictably existential effect on the lifespan of the human species——or as Norbert Weiner noted at about the same time in his epic “God and Golem, Inc.” using communications theory technology for certain indefensibly bad purposes, such as cheating God by trying to be God, may come back and byte you into extinction (ie. expulsion from God)——which the Wikileaks release of hubristic and secret and internal communications of an EMPIRE seems to be a perfect, albeit minor, warning of.

Per Dr. Strangelove the entire message of the film from the design of Wing Attack Plan ‘R’, to the psychopathy of Gen. Ripper, to ‘fixing’ the bomb-bay door circuit, to the Doomsday machine is ALL about man learning a bit of science and thinking he is God—- and then paying the price of EMPIRE-thinking”:

(President) Muffley:

But, how is it possible for this thing to be triggered automatically, and at the same time impossible to untrigger?

Strangelove:

Mr. President, it is not only possible, it is essential. That is the whole idea of this machine, you know. Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy… the fear to attack. And so, because of the automated and irrevocable decision making process which rules out human meddling, the doomsday machine is terrifying. It’s simple to understand. And completely credible, and convincing.

(General) Turgidson [modeled on LeMay]:

Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines, Stainsy.

Muffley:

But this is fantastic, Strangelove. How can it be triggered automatically?

Strangelove:

Well, it’s remarkably simple to do that. When you merely wish to bury bombs, there is no limit to the size. After that they are connected to a gigantic complex of computers. Now then, a specific and clearly defined set of circumstances, under which the bombs are to be exploded, is programmed into a tape memory bank.

Turgidson:

Strangelove. What kind of a name is that? That ain’t no kraut {Nazi Empire] name, is it, Stainsy?

Anyway, while I may feel as old as Shakespeare in a Tempest, at least I have learned that magic solutions by any name are extreemely dangerous to children and other living things.

Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine

How wonderful, they’ve always wanted to turn us into Robots. Now they no longer have to try. Because instead they will have real Robots, with their finger on the trigger. No more, need for a little soul searching before the hammer goes down. No more PTSD due do to illegal wars fought in far off countries, against people who are not like us. A new and improved version of war.

and silly me i thought when i watched Dr Who the Daleks were only science fiction:

The Doctor:
The metal is just battle armour. The real Dalek creature is inside.
Henry van Statten:
What does it look like?

The Doctor:
A nightmare. It’s a mutation. The Dalek race was genetically engineered. Every single emotion was removed except hate.

Henry van Statten:
Genetically engineered. By whom?

The Doctor:
[about Davros, the Dalek’s creator] By a genius, Van Statten. By a man who was king of his own little world. You’d like him.

In this article Richard Reeves gets to the essence of how sick the notions of empire truly are. The never ending wars created by the imperial elite have become a minor distraction to the consumerist juggernaut culture that actually celebrates something called “Black Friday” as if it were a national holiday.Happily left to the latest technology devices, even war itself, which at one time was thought of as a last resort after a complete failure in diplomacy, is now the first strike, first choice, for all who do not embrace American supremacy.